How Do You Feel About Asking Other People For Help?

I’ve noticed that many of us get uncomfortable about requesting support. While we’re all different and we each have our own unique perspective and talents, it seems that this can be quite a challlenge for most of us to ask for help.

When I feel stressed out, when I try to do everything myself, either because I feel insecure about asking for help or because I think that I’m the only one who can do it the “right” way. At other times, I can be quite pushy with my “demands” for help.
I’ve also experienced personally and seen in others many times throughout my life, that there is a middle way between going it all alone and demanding help from others. So many times in the past, I tried to do it all, read it all, check it all and not sleep at all. I had to learn how to stop doing “the one-man-show”.

The irony of this whole thing is that most of us like to help others, while many of us find it difficult asking others for help ourselves.

Asking for help can make us feel vulnerable. We usually think that we should be able to do everything ourselves or that by admitting we need help, we are somehow being weak. In addition, many of us are sensitive about being told NO and by asking others to help us we put ourselves out there and risk being rejected.

What if we had more freedom to ask for what we wanted and for specific help from other people? What if we could make requests in a confident and humble way? What if we remembered that we are worthy of other people’s help and that our ability to both ask for and receive it not only supports us, but also gives them an opportunity to contribute. It always surprises that most people really want to help.

It can be a little scary, we may get our feelings hurt from time to time, and on occasion people may have some opinions or reactions to what we ask for or how we do so. But, when we give ourselves permission and remind ourselves that it’s not only okay, but essential for us to ask for help, we can create a true sense of support in our lives.